Heart failure is an increasingly common condition worldwide. Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has shown great promise as a treatment for a large percentage of patients in various stages of heart failure. CRT involves cardiac pacing of both the left and right ventricles of the heart (biventricular pacing), which causes both ventricles to beat simultaneously, greatly improving the pumping efficiency of the heart. Typically, the lead that stimulates the left ventricle is positioned via the coronary sinus into a cardiac vein along the free wall of the left ventricle.
There are numerous challenges in successfully positioning the left ventricular lead, including accessing the coronary sinus and veins, advancing the leads to a position which yields proper stimulation, and preventing subsequent lead dislodgement during removal of delivery devices. Post procedural challenges related to the left ventricular lead include lead dislodgement prior to fibrosis, loss of stimulation capture, and lead removal necessitated by infection.
Currently available left ventricular leads have generally been designed to facilitate effective delivery and provide fatigue resistance, and are particularly susceptible to dislodgement both intra-procedurally and post-procedurally. Efforts to incorporate more aggressive anchoring into the lead body have generally been insufficient for preventing dislodgment, and/or have compromised effective delivery, fatigue resistance and subsequent lead removal.